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John Lewis Christmas Adverts
I recently watched the latest John Lewis Christmas advert, and it was full of #feels. Even E teared up a bit, but not really, when I made him watch the latest advert. Inspired by the advert and linked as well to the industry I work in I have here my favorite John Lewis Christmas Adverts. Of course I ranked the adverts as well, so let us start with my favorite:
I love this advert the most because I recalled how childhood was so free of care and full of imagination. The message was simple and who can ever resist Monty the adorable penguin? Right? Aside from that it also shared how love is, sometimes, all we need during the Holiday season. No need for any extravagant gift or big gestures, just the fact that somebody loves you is enough. This ad was created by their agency Adam & Eve. Take time to watch the bts footage and you’ll be surprised that Monty (the penguin in the advert) is not a real penguin.
My second favorite John Lewis Christmas advert was the debut Christmas advert of Adam & Eve. Again banking on children and the fact that as adults we forget how Christmas should be celebrated. This was depicted by having kids open the gifts meant for adults. You will see their innocence and their happiness in opening presents. This is true, and something I can totally relate to (because I have been saying over and over again the past couple of years that Christmas i just for kids). The execution was simple but well thought of, definitely will make you realize how much you can miss out on if you forget how Christmas is truly the most wonderful time of the year.
Their 2011 ad is third on my list. Because of how it switched up the expectation. Again perhaps thinking of how people assume that Christmas is for kids. This time around they leveled up the production value of their advert as compared to previous years. This also set the standard for the next adverts that they will produce for the Holiday season. This also had a lot of #feels for me because I’m a first time mom. I hope that someday I will also get a silly surprise from my bunny girl.
Their latest Christmas advert is fourth on my list. This is the one that had so much #feels. The way they depicted how the elderly feel during the Holiday season was creative but again simple. The man on the moon execution clearly sums up how detached they feel during the holiday season because they are alone or they just don’t feel like celebrating a holiday deemed more for kids than for adults.
Last on my list is their 2013 advert. Aside from the amazing song choice, it was nice how they executed the ad in full animation. Something both children and adult can really enjoy watching.
Featured Posts
As always, the office had this Halloween Trick or Treat celebration. As a first time mom I was super excited to sign up and bring bunny, for the very first time, to the office. I was super excited that I was the first one who signed up on our list. I wanted to go all in for this first trick or treat. I know that there are lots of costumes up for grabs at the mall and the toy store, but I wanted her costume to be unique to help further maximize her cuteness.
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For the longest time, I’ve always wanted to try out Sample Room. I have seen reviews from other mommy bloggers and it seems very interesting. During my 2 week sick leave, thank you very much chicken pox, I tried to get as much information as I can about Sample Room. I checked out their site, and followed them on Instagram.
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I have carried you in my womb for nine months, and for nine months we were one. You knew how mommy felt, you knew when mommy was hungry, and you knew when mommy needed to take a break.
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After swimming with the whale sharks, I talked to the receptionist at MB Sunrise. I’ve read blogs about Sumilon Island and I wanted to ask for a local’s advise on whether or not it is worth spending money on. I was pressured to make sure that my friends and E have an amazing time in Cebu since I was the promoter of the whole trip, which is why when he said yes I immediately asked for his help on how we can get there. According to him, we just need to take a tricycle from MB Sunrise to the port going to Sumilon Island and from there we will ride a boat to the island. I was about to ask him if he can call a ride for us when he asked if we needed a ride and what our estimated time of departure was (oh kind sir you are heaven sent!) and that payment per person for the ride was P50.
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I know that I already have a post about our day in Oslob, when we tried whale shark watching in Oslob and exploring Sumilon island. But here’s a more detailed blogpost about my experience swimming with the whale sharks.
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Our last day was spent going to different shops to buy “pasalubong.” It is common tradition here in the Philippines that if you go on a vacation, you will buy knick-knacks, trinkets, food, or any type of souvenir item for your friends, officemates, loved ones, or anybody you know.
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We were super tired from our first two days in Cebu. E mentioned that I should have switched Day 2 and Day 3, but it’s done. My initial plan for Day 3 was to have a second walking trip in downtown Cebu, because the first one was not optimized. I’ll probably blog about my recommended walking tour for downtown Cebu soon. Aside from the walking tour, I also planned going to the taoist temple and tops.
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For our second day in Cebu, I decided that we should go to Oslob. While there are other things that you can do in the city, E asked if we can go to the beach. What better way to spend a day frolicking in the sun than going to Oslob where you can have a close, very close, encounter with the whale sharks (locally called butanding).
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As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I have been to Cebu twice so I was tasked to create our itinerary for 4D/3N. Luckily I have this habit of checking Trip Advisor for reviews, blog hopping, and asking my friends who either live in Cebu or have been in Cebu numerous times. So by January I was done reserving our hotel and preparing our itinerary (I even made two options for our itinerary: (1) overnight stay in Oslob or (2) day tour in Oslob). My estimate was that we will spend around P10,000 per person (roughly around $250-300) all in.
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Here is my official Cebu DIY tour list. I’ve been to Cebu twice before our trip. First was with my mom, it was my birthday gift to her and the second one was for work (Berocca Night #OnFullBlast party series). So, I’m a bit familiar with the places that should be visited there in Cebu and I have friends who gave me a checklist of places to visit and eat at. That awesome combination helped me create my second Cebu DIY tour.
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I wasn’t able to post about my second day in Shanghai right after my post about my first day in Shanghai, but whop-ti-do here’s it is. So our first day gave me a glimpse of the city, but the second day was a 14 hr tour to Shanghai (super tiring but it was worth it).
Woke up late because I was exhausted from all the transfers, so I had a quick breakfast and even had time to smoke (just one stick). Ivan, our tour guide, shared with us our itinerary for the day: The Bund, The Silk Factory, food trip in Yu Yuan, watching an acrobat show, and dropping by Xin Tian Di.
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Last October, I went to Shanghai with my colleagues (yey free company trip!). It was my first out of the country trip and being a trigger happy person, in 4 days I had 700+ photos! Of course I wouldn’t share all of my photos here in my blog, but I’ll share my favorite ones. 🙂
Since it was a company trip, we had a planned itinerary (gah) but thankfully we had a free day (oh yeah!). We had 4 days to enjoy the city of Shanghai, where I discovered that there is more to it than shopping!
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Here’s my final post for our Ilocos Adventure. Took me almost a month to blog about it, but heck at least I made time for it. 🙂 We woke up super early, since we slept at 9 pm. E and I decided to have coffee outside and enjoy the view. A few steps away from our room you can see the Windmills and it was very visible because the skies were clear.
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Finally! Here’s day 2 part 2 of our Ilocos Adventure. Been super busy at work which is why it took me a week to blog again. Boo-hoo.
So after our 4×4 and sand boarding experience over at Laoag, we boarded the bus to Claveria (?). Kuya Glenn was kind enough to tell the conductor where we are going and where to drop us off. So we hopped on the ordinary bus, ready to go to Pagudpud.
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Day 2 of our Ilocos trip started early as well. 🙂 I set the time to leave Vigan northbound to Laoag at 8am, but we were running late and we had so much fun over breakfast that we left around 8:30am.
Included in the payment at Villa Angela for our one night stay was breakfast for four. Right after we checked in, the staff already asked us what we wanted for breakfast – Vigan Longganisa or Bangus. All of us opted to have longganisa except for Palos. They also asked me what time our breakfast should be prepared – and I said around 6:30 since we will be leaving early. So it was no surprise that when we woke up and E opened the door, the common area smelled yummy! Think of cartoons floating around to follow the smell towards their plate – that kind of smell.
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Day 1 of our Ilocos Tour started super early! We arrived at Bantay, Ilocos Sur around 6:45 am, this was our bus stop because Farinas does not go in Vigan City. It’s okay because the tricycle ride to go in Vigan is not that expensive.
We hopped on two tricycles – one for me and E, the other for Chinee and Palos. I instructed the driver to drop us at Villa Angela where we will be staying for the night. I immediately talked to one of the ate’s there to ask if we can check in early, unfortunately the guest was still there but we can go back a little before lunch. The ate was kind enough to let us leave our bags at their office while we go around Vigan.
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I’ve always wanted to explore the Philippines, sadly I wasn’t able to go to any destination last year because mum got sick. My planned birthday surprise trip for her to Bohol got cancelled as well as my bday gift to my dad to go to Cebu. So I promised myself that this year I will continue my journey in discovering the Philippines. 🙂
My first stop this year was a tour at Intramuros (thank you so much Tammy 🙂 – will blog about that next time) and my second stop was a DIY tour to Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte. This will be a brief blog – just my planned Itinerary + breakdown of expenses. 🙂
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fumbles and blah blahs 